Iraq/EU Energy Cooperation: A New Important Milestone

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Iraq and European Union Energy Cooperation: A New Important Milestone

In June, 2013 Iraq and the European Union-EU signed financial agreement pertaining to establishing the Iraq-EU Energy Centre in Iraq. This came as a result of concerted efforts and many formal cooperation modalities that have been negotiated and concluded during the last few years.

As I was the team-leader of the EU study for this Centre I would argue in this intervention that the establishment of the Centre would constitute vital milestone for productive, effective, long lasting and mutually beneficial cooperation between Iraq and the EU, and would argue further that both sides should do their utmost to expedite the process of establishing the Centre and the start of its functioning. From financial aspects the EU contribution to the Centre has insignificant value compared with Iraq’s annual budgets; nevertheless the two parties should not allow politicization, on either side, to derail this vital cooperation project.

This brief contribution focuses on the energy cooperation between Iraq and the EU, and does not address the bilateral energy cooperation between Iraq and each member states of the EU.

Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: [email protected], Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad).